Nongshim RedForce continued their impressive early-season run today by beating T1 2-0. And the first game of this match was one of the longest yet in the 2021 LCK Summer Split.
While T1 would have been the favorites in this showdown last split, they looked like the underdogs in most of the series. They’ve been making a lot of misplays and getting out-drafted by their opponents lately. NS exploited this weakness today, banning out key picks such as Lee Sin, Ezreal, and Kalista in both matches to prevent their opponents from snowballing.
The MVP votes in today’s League of Legends series went to NS jungler Peanut and mid laner Gori. Peanut played Rumble and Diana, two powerful junglers, to go for aggressive moves around the map and take control of the game. Gori, on the other hand, used Sylas and Sett to match his former mentor in the middle lane. While he had a couple of misplays, most likely due to pressure, he did play better than Faker today.
The series opened up with a 70-minute match. Both teams played safe during the laning phase before slowly transitioning to the mid game to group up for objectives. With a lot of scaling champions across the board, no one seemed to want to take any risks. And when a fight almost broke out, both teams backed out.
This continued for a long time with three Elder Dragons and six Barons going down throughout the match before NS won a teamfight to finish the game. One crucial pick that helped NS win was Varus, who went for a lethality-oriented build and kept T1 at bay. His arrows did around 70 to 80 percent of T1 carries’ health pool, forcing them to stay far away from the fights.
Related: Here are the 2021 LCK Summer Split standings
After being demoralized following a 70-minute game loss, T1 looked much weaker in the second match, making mistakes left and right. NS, on the other hand, went for more plays around the mid game to build a lead. While not all of them worked out perfectly, the ones that did helped NS secure multiple neutral objectives and close out the series 2-0.
NS (4-1) will be back on the Rift on Friday, June 25 with a match against Fredit BRION.
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Published: Jun 24, 2021 10:12 am